Transcription

554 in speaking of the sums realised as common to the four governments" At first a special export duty of If) per cent., in addition to the usual export duty of 5 per cent., was imposed on the produce of the guilty Hinawi tribes only ; hut, owing to the collusion of Ghafiri tribes, to the abuse of an exemption in favour of the Hajriyln, to the weakness of the Sultan's executive at Sur, and to the partiality displayed by the Sultan himself in making collections at Masqat, the tax instead of bringing in §20,000 to $30,000 a year, as had been estimated, yielded between the 1st of August 1895 and the 14th of March 1896 the sum of §9,054 merely; and of this only §650 was derived from Sur, the chief port of the offending tribes. In July 1896 the Sultan, to punish the Ghafiris for conniving to screen the Hinawis and also on account of the part which his own Ghafiri levies had taken in the plunder of Masqat, imposed an extra 5 per cent, on exported Ghafiri produce, so raising the export duty payable by the tribes of that faction to 10 per cent.; but, as we have seen, the circumstance was taken advantage of by Shaikh Salih-bin-'Ali to detach some of the Ghafiris of Wadi Samail from their allegiance, and the new older, which from the first had been discountenanced by the British
Political Agent
A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , was then almost instantly repealed. At the beginning of 1S97 Saiyid 1' aisal asked to be allowed six years in all in which to dis charge the indemnity, but promised to pay interest on what remained due after the end of the third year ; and in the same year, 1897, he farmed out the punitive tax to Ratansi Parshotam, an Indian merchant, for §15,000per annum. In March 1898 only §29,711 of the indemnity had been paid off, and in August the tax was re-farmed to the same indi vidual for §18,000, though another Hindu had offered §25,000 for it. BridlbTndian p 111 ^ period now under consideration, grievances on the part of traders. British Indian traders in 'Oman continued to accumulate. In 1889, and a^ain in 1894 and in every subsequent date season up to and including that of 1898, the British Indian date exporters of Matrah were compelled to bring their consignments to Masqat to be weighed; this was an arbi- tiaiy anangement from which Saiyid Turki had desisted on remonstrances bein& uiade, but in the case of the present ruler mere remonstrances were of no avail. As laid dates, which went to America only, were exempt from this oulei, the system amounted to a differentiation in favour of American tiade, and it was unfair to the Khojahs of Matrah, by the ingenuity of whose rivals, the Hindus of Masqat, it was probably contrived. The eommeicial tieaty of 1891, also, was indifferently observed by the Sultan's officials, and illegal charges were common. Export duty was frequently in excess of the 5 per cent, rate agreed to by the British Government,

Part 1A contains an 'Introduction' (pages i-iii) written by Birdwood in Simla, dated 10 October 1914. There is also a 'Table of Chapters, Annexures, Appendices and Genealogical Tables' (page v-viii) and 'Detailed Table of Contents' (pages ix-cxxx), both of which cover all volumes and parts of the Gazetteer .

Volume I, Part I has been divided into two bound volumes (1A and 1B) for ease of binding. Part 1A contains an 'Introduction', 'Table of Chapters, Annexures, Appendices and Genealogical Trees' and 'Detailed Table of Contents'. The content is arranged into nine chapters, with accompanying annexures, that relate to specific geographic regions in the
Persian Gulf
Historically used by the British to refer to the sea area between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Often referred to as The Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. . The chapters are sub-divided into numbered periods according, for example, to the reign of a ruler or regime of a Viceroy, or are arbitrarily based on outstanding land-marks in the history of the region. Each period has been sub-divided into subject headings, each of which has been lettered. The annexures focus on a specific place or historical event. Further subject headings also appear in the right and left margins of the page. Footnotes appear occasionally at the bottom of the page to provide further details and references.

Volume I, Part IA: The sequence begins on the first folio with text, on number 1, and ends on the last folio with text, on number 456. Total number of folios: 456. Total number of folios including covers and flysheets: 460.

Volume I, Part IB: The sequence begins on the first folio with text, on number 457, and ends on the last folio with text, on number 878. It should be noted that folio 488 is followed by folio 488A. Total number of folios: 423. Total number of folios including covers and flysheets: 427.